(Please read the Scripture passage before reading the homily.
We start off a new season today: at 3:21 p.m., today, autumn starts. We start a new chapter in Luke’s Gospel account at Luke 9:1-6. This chapter is a logical sequel to chapters 7 and 8 just as fall is a logical sequel to summer.
Chapters seven and eight describe the characteristics of the kingdom of God. It includes healing and life for women and men, it includes both male and female disciples, it includes the forgiveness of sins, and it is like a light on a lampstand in a house.
To bring this kingdom about, Jesus proceeds to send out workers. He summons the Twelve and gives them power over demons and diseases. He sends them out to proclaim the kingdom of God.
The task is important and compelling. It also does not need walking sticks, knapsacks, extra clothing, money, or meals. Just as Jesus accepts all peoples of every kind, so the missionary accepts all kinds of lodging and meals.
The proclamation of the kingdom will show itself in the cures that accompany it and in the lifestyle of those who proclaim it. The traveling together and the acceptance of hospitality themselves are proclamation of the kingdom. It is not only by the spoken word that the kingdom is proclaimed; it is also, and more importantly, by the lived word that the kingdom is proclaimed.
Now we know what the kingdom of God entails and includes, as well as the power belonging to those sent on mission, it is time that we accept our call to proclaim, by the word of our life as well as by the word of mouth, the kingdom of God. We, like the Twelve have power over demons and diseases, power to accept hospitality, and power not to have money, extra clothing, or things. Free from care, we proclaim the news of the kingdom in family, in community, in Church and wherever God puts us in this life.
Just as autumn picks up where summer has left off, so our work in the kingdom today picks up where yesterday has left off.